A few days later than expected, Nicky Hayden has decided to stay with Ducati for the 2010 season, as the Marlboro Ducati team exercised their option on the American rider today. We had originally expected this announcement at Indianapolis last weekend, after earlier news suggested we’d here about the contract, one way or another, before the month of September. But, better late than never, and the news helps sure up the paddock for the 2010 season.
This weekend looks to be another tough one for Nicky Hayden, who seems to be struggling again with his Ducati Desmosedici GP9 in today’s Free Practice Session. The American currently sits 15th on the grid, the very last position held by a factory rider. Contrast that with the 5th place Colin Edwards is currently holding on his satellite Tech3 Yamaha, which runs on a .
Ducati at the Qatar GP race last week release more photos and information on the . Ducati calls this “the next step in the advancement” of their GP series motorcycles. The objective behind the new frame is to create a chassis set-up in which each element carries out a specific function, to obtain the desired rigidity with as little weight as possible, thus attaining maximum efficiency.
For the tests in Jerez, Ducati will be providing Nicky Hayden with a new set of foot pegs for his GP9. After studying track data, Borgo Panigale has revealed that the 2006 World Champion touches the rear-brake of the GP9 with his foot without noticing it. At Honda, Nicky’s propensity to hit the rear-brake had also been discovered, and was attributed to his past in dirt track riding. With these new foot pegs, we’ll see if the Kentucky Kid can gain a few tenths of a second without even trying.
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Vittoriano Guareschi is probably the most envied test rider in Italy, as he has been developing the Ducati Desmosedici since 2002. Now he has given his two cents on Ducati’s swtich to the carbon chasis frame, and the benefits it will bring to the Ducati MotoGP program.
After seeing Ducati’s photo shoot of the new GP9 with Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden, we couldn’t help but make the association.
Ducati has officially unveiled its 2009 GP9 MotoGP race bike, with the most noticeable change being the switch to a carbon fiber frame, which is Ducati’s first departure from its iconic stell-trellis frame. Pictures and Claudio Domenicali’s response after the jump.